Great, I'm surrounded by villains.

Chapter 361 Black Mud
All the scholars were practical people, and they couldn't wait to start the seminar after lunch. Duan Mingyuan unsurprisingly became the theme of the seminar.

In order to avoid embarrassment for both parties, Fuling prepared a VIP seat for Duan Mingyuan - the monitoring center of the ecological ship, where he could participate in the experts' discussions without being on site.

“This was originally one of the important topics of this academic summit.”

Fuling also very considerately brought a fruit platter, "The academic community is very interested in your method of solving the 'dehydration syndrome'. After getting in touch with you, their interest naturally shifted to you."

She could see that Duan Mingyuan was also very interested in this.

However, the first discussion usually fails to produce many constructive ideas, so the experts sitting together begin to brainstorm and come up with any potentially relevant intelligence they know.

The conversion between different energies is extremely rare. This is due to the different means of obtaining energy by different civilizations. Especially for energy like the sun, which needs to be obtained through faith, only the most devout believers can collect such a huge amount of energy - this has almost become a consensus of the entire universe.

Participating in the discussion was an expert in the study of solar energy, who was also a member of the Church of Embers.

"How is it? Does it inspire you?"

Fuling was also sitting in the monitoring center, listening very carefully.

As early as when she was on Blue Star, she had developed a strong curiosity about this question.

"Not yet."

Duan Mingyuan shook his head.

This brainstorming discussion lasted for nearly half an hour before a silent expert finally proposed a creature called black mud.

After hearing these two words, the whole room was silent for a long time.

From their surprised eyes, it is not difficult to see that this has brought great inspiration to others.

"What is black mud?"

Duan Mingyuan asked.

"Well... first of all, I'm sure they meant no disrespect to you."

Fuling was the first to state, "They just listed the information that might be relevant."

"You're a little too sensitive. I didn't mean it that way."

Duan Mingyuan always felt that Fuling was a little cautious today. This wasn't their first day together. Was he the kind of person who would kill someone just because of a few offensive words from others?

Although experts in the field of life sciences unanimously agreed that he was most likely not human, and Heya once claimed that he had many similarities with "Cocoon", so that Duan Mingyuan himself could not 100% confirm his own race, there was at least one thing he was sure of - he was not an ogre.

Not the slightest resemblance to a bad-tempered ogre.

"Then I said it."

Fuling didn't want to make the discussion atmosphere so restrained, but she had to fulfill the Robert Biltz Clause. As the organizer of the academic summit, she had to pay more attention to Duan Mingyuan's mental state than anyone else.

"The concept of black mud originated from some reports of spacecraft crashes in the academic community. After reading the internal records of the spacecraft crash, the faction that proposed this theory realized that there seemed to be a mysterious creature in this universe."

As she spoke, Fuling pointed her index finger at the screen and swiped it slightly, and the information about the black mud was presented in front of Duan Mingyuan in an organized manner.

Duan Mingyuan read the information carefully.

In fact, the researchers who proposed this theory have never seen black mud with their own eyes, let alone conducted research on it.

All their speculations about the black mud came from the internal briefing of the crashed spacecraft - before the spacecraft crashed, many unusual and strange things happened in the flagship, for example, someone witnessed another self.

They have the same looks, the same personalities, and even the same way of speaking.

These "clones" appeared out of thin air on the spacecraft and carried out their operations step by step. Usually the first crew member who pointed out something was wrong was considered to have suffered from navigation syndrome and had hallucinations during the long interstellar journey. In the next few days, they did become mentally abnormal, they began to become delirious, and some lost their ability to speak.

Then, this mental abnormality will quickly spread throughout the ship.

More and more people witnessed another self, and often by this time, any remedial measures were too late, and all the ships that had left similar records eventually sank.

The causes of the accidents varied. Some captains crashed their ships straight into asteroids, while others used weapons to blow up the cabins.

The only thing they have in common is that the records left in the days before the crash are full of madness.

They were transformed from normal people into fanatics, and their way of martyrdom was to destroy the entire ship along with it.

"It's very subtle."

Fuling said, "The condition of those people is exactly the same as that of navigation syndrome. In addition, the existence of black mud is just a scientific conjecture. No one can confirm whether it really exists. Therefore, there have always been two voices in the academic community. Opponents believe that those who proposed the black mud theory have complicated navigation syndrome."

"However, voyage syndrome is not contagious."

Duan Mingyuan pointed out the problem.

As the ship's doctor, he had read up on seafaring syndrome before his first voyage.

Judging from the individual situations, they do seem to have abnormal mental states. Usually, the problem can be solved by letting them rest for a few days, or at least isolating the individual. However, in these cases, navigation syndrome has become extremely contagious.

It could last as short as three days or as long as a week, and eventually everyone on the ship became crazy.

Or the kind that is crazy enough to lead to self-destruction.

"Yes, that's why the Black Mud Theory still has many supporters today."

Fuling said, "Opponents can't explain why this kind of navigation syndrome is so contagious. They can only call it an isolated case, or some kind of mental illness that we haven't yet mastered."

"How do the people of the Black Mud School explain it?"

Duan Mingyuan had a vague premonition in his heart.

"They believe that it was not an illusion, but that there were really people who looked exactly like them on the spacecraft. They never suffered from mental illness, but it was the misunderstanding and suspicion of others that drove them crazy."

Fuling marked the limited remaining records. "Well, in their cognition, even when destroying the spacecraft, they remained highly rational and were well aware of the consequences of doing so."

All the captains who destroyed their ships expressed a common sentiment.

——They didn’t know how this horrible creature got on board the ship, but they would never bring it back to the planet.

Most captains destroyed their flagships with this awareness.

"Assuming that the black mud is real, they are a group of creatures that can completely transform into another person's appearance, completely copying their memories, personality and way of speaking."

1721.

Duan Mingyuan immediately thought of the "parasite" attached to Eisenberg-Adler, which had almost driven Eisenberg crazy.

“They are real.”

"Eh?"

Duan Mingyuan's decisive statement made Fuling stunned for a long while. She calmed down and could only think of one possibility, "Have you seen it?"

"I've seen it."

(End of this chapter)